Elam reflecting on a different chapter in his life

An author of storied Broncos finishes, Elam writes explosive book

Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, October 26, 2007

He's living the life of Riley, with three last-second, game-winning field goals this year, and a recent history that includes surviving bomb attacks while visiting the Middle East and an engine failure over Alaska in his private plane.

Now, when Jason Elam takes the next step in his stranger-than-fiction life, the main character in his first novel will be Riley Covington.

Jason Elam, writing a book?

He admits it sounds a little strange, even to him.

"I've never actually dreamed of it or wanted to do it," the Broncos All-Pro kicker said.

But two years ago, he had this thought.

First, his brother had been after him to capture some of the interesting stories he has witnessed in his 15 years as an NFL player.

Then he imagined a scenario in which he could combine those with something he's passionate about - his faith, and some of the current events of today's world, particularly terrorism.

He pitched it to a literary agent, who fell in love with the idea.

Only one problem: Elam had the concept in his brain for the action-adventure book called Monday Night Jihad, but getting it on paper was something different altogether.

Probably the last thing he had written was a college paper, more than a dozen years ago.

But he put together a synopsis and, again, the literary agent loved it.

But that didn't solve the time-commitment issue.

"I found between football and four kids and my faith and trying to get my master's, it wasn't going as fast as I wanted," Elam said.

The literary agent went searching for a ghost writer and found one in Atlanta, but that didn't make sense to Elam.

"What I didn't want to happen was to give someone my idea and they'd run with it," he said. "I wanted to do some writing."

In stepped the pastor at his church, Steve Yohn, who never had written fiction but eventually agreed to be co-author.

"My thought was I'm a pastor and I'm going to write some theological poem that no one's going to read but (rather) use as a doorjamb or something like that," Yohn said.

But he was willing to try. They'd write three chapters, send them in, and impress the agent, do the same with three more and keep going.

The key was Elam's wide range of friends.

Special Ops

"Jason knows everybody," said Yohn, who is director of adult ministries of Fellowship Community Church in Centennial.

"When I had no clue about something, I'd call him up and his big line was, 'I have a buddy.' "

He had a buddy in Air Force Special Ops, who provided recently declassified battle scenes from Afghanistan.

He also has a buddy in the Secret Service, a buddy with the Denver Police Department bomb squad and one with Denver's homicide division.

Elam also had a former college teammate who is a former Muslim, and knows another former Muslim from Iran now living in Texas.

He got more background for his book when he visited the Gaza Strip last year and got caught in a shootout.

And a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, this offseason to do missionary work provided even more insight.

So what is Monday Night Jihad?

"What I was hoping to do, and think I pulled off, was contrast Christianity with radical Islam and moderate Islam," Elam said.

And he purposely avoids demonizing anybody.

"If Osama bin Laden himself were to pick up this book and read it, I'd want him to say, 'Yeah, that's why I do what I do. That's how I justify, how I reconcile, that's what I believe.'

"I'm really trying to take people into the mind of this person as best I could and really show the why; not just what they believe, but the why."

Risk taker

Broncos players and fans surely will recognize some of the places in the book as well as the characters. The lead character, Elam said, is a cross of Chad Hennings, Steve Russ and Chris Gizzi - all Air Force Academy graduates who played football in college but went on to pro careers while serving their country.

The book opens in Afghanistan, where Riley Covington served a tour of duty then comes back to play for the local pro football team only to find himself brought back into his military world unexpectedly.

As for Elam, he adds in various true-life stories - like the time he tried to make peace with Raiders fans in Oakland by kicking a football back into the stands, only to hit the big guy who had been harassing him when he wasn't looking, thus spilling his beer.

"I do make a couple of references to the kicker, but it's just more or less poking fun at the kicker here and there. I didn't want the hero to be the kicker," Elam said.

Even so, Yohn is impressed, calling Elam a risk taker.

"Part of it is the travel, the whole thing in Gaza, then going to another country like Turkey," he said. "The other side is his willingness to try new things. There's no reason why he needs to be putting himself out there, writing books, but it's something he felt called to do - so he's willing to take that risk.

"It's either going to fly and people are going to say, 'Wow, that's terrific.' Or they'll say, 'Here's just another football player trying to write a book.' "

For Elam's sake, he's hoping it's the former.

The 350-page book, set for release in January, will be published by Tyndale House ($19.99 hardcover), which has published a number of New York Times best-sellers, including Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy's No. 1 title, Quiet Strength.

Meanwhile, the family man with nerves of steel and a foot to match already is on to the next chapter.

He has a contract for a second book, with the lead character along the lines of fictional adventurer Dirk Pitt out of Clive Cussler novels.

And Elam is working on a master's degree in global apologetics at Lynchburg, Va.-based Liberty Theological Seminary and is studying Biblical Greek.

"It's not enough for him to read a translation of the Bible. He wants to try to get into the text itself and pull it apart," Yohn said.

All in a day's work for Elam.

Book excerpt

From Monday Night Jihad, by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn, to be released in January by Tyndale Publishing ($19.99 hardcover). Information: tyndale.com:

Bagram Valley

Helmand Province, Afghanistan

His count was off. Second Lieutenant Riley Covington of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command was on watch at a perimeter security post. He had been lying at the top of a low rise, watching his sector, for four hours, and each time he had counted the boulders on the hill across the small valley, he had come up with 36. This time, however, the count reached 38.

"You seeing anything, Taps?" Riley whispered into his com. At the other security post, located on the opposite side of the harbor site, Airman First Class Armando Tapia was stretched out behind a small, hastily constructed rock wall.

"Everything's good to go," came the reply.

WHOOMPF! The unmistakable sound of a mortar tube echoed through the valley below.

"Incoming!" Riley yelled as he opened fire with his M4 carbine at "boulders" thirty-seven and thirty-eight, causing one to stumble back down the hill and the other to remain permanently where it was.

A flare lit up the night sky as heavy machine-gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms rounds targeted Riley's ODA. Riley looked to his left and saw an anticoalition militia approaching from the north, right over Tapia's position. Riley, seeing the size of the enemy force, let off a few more three-shot bursts, then bolted back down to the harbor site.

Off to his left, about fifteen meters away, an MK19 automatic grenade launcher was mounted on its low tripod. Riley rocketed out from safety and across the dirt. He stumbled forward, launched himself behind the Mark 19, and let loose.

It took him just under a minute and a half to empty the ammunition can of sixty grenades. The sound was deafening, and the explosions from the shells hitting the enemy positions lit up the night. But RPGs and mortar rounds kept dropping into the camp.

Riley half ran, half staggered over to what remained of his ODA. The rest of his team huddled around him and he took a quick head count. Not good. They would be outnumbered if a second wave came.

Riley drew his team close. "Okay, men, we have two options. We dig in here and try to hold off another attack, or we surprise them while they're regrouping."

"Tell ya what, Pach," said Kim "Tommy" Li, a man with an itchy trigger finger and way too many tattoos, "if there's gonna be target practice going on here, I'd rather be the shooter than the bull's-eye."

"Okay, then, here's how it's going to work. Murphy and Li, I want you to belly out to those boulders twenty meters north to meet their feint. Logan, you and Ross remount the Mark on the Humvee and circle it around east; then everyone open up with everything and blow the snot out of these desert rats. Got it?"

An excited mixture of "Yes, sir" and "Yeah, boy" was heard from the men.

"We've got five of our guys down, with at least one probably out - that's unacceptable. Let's make 'em pay." Riley locked eyes with each member of his team and tried to draw from them the same courage he was attempting to instill. "Ready . . . go, go, go!!"

Monday night magic

Jason Elam has played in 25 Monday night games and has gone 25-for-27 on field-goal attempts inside 40 yards and 43-for-57 overall.

Two of his 23 winning or tying kicks have come on Monday night.

His 53-yarder with 7 seconds remaining in freezing, snowy weather, forced overtime against the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 22, 1999, at Mile High Stadium. The Broncos won in the extra period.

His 41-yard field goal as time expired gave Denver a 27-24 win against Oakland on Nov. 13, 2000, in the final Monday Night Football game at Mile High.

His 43 field goals and 183 points scored rank second and third, respectively, in NFL history on MNF and lead all active players. NFL leaders in field goals made on MNF:

No. Player, years G FG

1. Gary Anderson, 1982-2004 33 51

2. Jason Elam*, 1993- 25 43

3. Morten Andersen*, 1983- 26 36

4. Ryan Longwell*, 1997- 26 34

5. Mark Moseley, 1970-86 21 33*Active

debruinl@RockyMountainNews.com